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Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – April 2016

April 28, 2016

I am enjoying both of the books I’m reading right now so much! I’m listening to one of Ruth Rendell‘s Inspector Wexford mysteries, and as usual, it is a terrific read! Any time I open one of her mysteries, I know I’m in for a real treat! I simply love her books! Inspector Wexford and the rest of the characters are truly written in 3-D form. Rendell is a superb story teller and can be found on both of these very prestigious lists: Crime Writers’ Association Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time AND Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time.

As for my “real” reading >>> I’ve veered off the Cozy Mystery road and am reading one of Ann Rule‘s true crime novels. Yow! I also love her books, so I’m in a type of euphoric reading mode!

Getting back to Cozy Mysteries >>> Have you read any during April that have made you think they are way better than the rest of the Cozies you read this month? If so, would you please tell us about these super-good Cozies and why you liked them so much? We’d love to know about the Cozies you think are “better than the rest” so that we (too) can read them. (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are terrific, would you post the ones you think are even better than the others at the top of the list?)

As usual, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery book did you read during April 2016 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Here are the current recommended authors who some of you have read and recommended this past month:

Kristi Abbott: Popcorn Shop Mystery Series (Kernel of Truth is book #1)

Susan Wittig Albert: China Bayles Mystery Series

Barbara Allan: Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery Series

Gretchen Archer: Davis Way Crime Caper Mystery Series (Double Whammy is book #1)

Karoline Barrett: Bread and Batter Mystery Series (Bun for Your Life is book #1)

M. C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney): Hamish Macbeth Mysterty Series

Patti Benning: Darling Deli Mystery Series

Jennie Bentley (aka Jenna Bennett & Bente Gallagher): Do It Yourself Mystery Series

Rhys Bowen: Evan Evans Mystery Series

Frances Brody: Kate Shackleton Mystery Series

Duffy Brown: Cycle Path Mystery Series

J.J. Cook (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene & Ellie Grant): Biscuit Bowl Food Truck Mystery Series

J.J. Cook (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene & Ellie Grant): Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mystery Series

E.J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series

Mary Daheim: Hillside Manor Bed & Breakfast Mystery Series

Krista Davis: Paws & Claws Mystery Series

Steve Demaree: Dekker Mystery Series (52 Steps to Murder is book #1)

Laura DiSilverio (aka Lila Dare & Ella Barrick): Readaholics Book Club Mystery Series

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Penny Brannigan Mystery Series

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Allan): Magical Bookshop Mystery Series

Eva Gates (aka Vicki Delany): Lighthouse Library Mystery Series

Ann Granger: Markby & Mitchell Village Whodunit Mystery Series

Lee Harris: Christine Bennett (Holiday) Mystery Series

Ellen Elizabeth Hunter: Magnolia Mystery Series

Karen MacInerney: Margie Petersen Mystery Series

G.A. McKevett: Savannah Reid Mystery Series

Meg Muldoon: Christmas River Mystery Series

Renee Patrick: Lillian Frost and Edith Head Mystery Series (A Design for Dying is book #1)

Louise Penny: Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series

Anne Perry: Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Mystery Series

Carol J. Perry: Witch City Mystery Series

Rose Pressey: Haunted Village Mystery Series

Ruth Rendell: Inspector Wexford Mystery Series

J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Eve Dallas (In Death) Mystery Series (not Cozy)

Paige Shelton: Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series

Karen Rose Smith: Caprice De Luca Mystery Series

Denise Swanson: Devereaux’s Dime Store Mystery Series

Margaret Yorke: Stand Alone mysteries

[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

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Realtor Sleuths in Cozy Mysteries

April 22, 2016

home8A while ago, Terri asked me to post a Realtor themed entry:

… Could you do a list of cozies with professions of Realtors (as this series is) or Real Estate Appraisers (“Appraisal for Murder” by Elaine Orr, series Jolie Gentil Cozy Mysteries)- or maybe a combined list? Kathleen Delaney’s “Ellen McKenzie mysteries” would also fit. …

I keep a list of possible themes which I try to add to whenever I start the posting process for a new-to-the-site author, so I already had the theme going. So, the realtor sleuth theme now will join some of the many themes I have on my site such as Librarians Sleuths in Cozies, Culinary Cozies with Recipes, Cozies with Cats, etc.

Realtor Sleuths in Cozy Mysteries:

Jenna Bennett (aka Jennie Bentley & Bente Gallagher): Savannah Martin Mystery Series – Savannah is a divorced Southern Belle who is a realtor in Nashville, Tennessee.

Catherine Bruns: Cindy York Mystery Series

Ann Charles: Deadwood Humorous Mystery Series – Violet “Spooky” Parker, is a single mom of twins who wears purple cowboy books and is a real estate agent in a little town called Deadwood (South Dakota). Violet has a tendency to sell haunted houses, so watch out!

Cheryl Crane: Nikki Harper Mystery Series – Nikki is a celebrity realtor in Hollywood.

Vicki Doudera: Darby Farr Mystery Series – Darby is a realtor on an island off of Maine’s coast.

Charlaine Harris: Aurora Teagarden Mystery Series – At the beginning of the series, Aurora (Roe) is a librarian. She later becomes a real estate agent in Georgia.

Traci Tyne Hilton: Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery Series – Mitzy is a top-selling realtor in Portland, Oregon. (These are billed as “cozy Christian” mysteries.)

Nancy Lynn Jarvis : Regan McHenry Real Estate Mystery Series – Regan is a realtor/sleuth and her husband Tom is an ex-computer programmer, in Santa Cruz, California.

Barbara Lee: Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series

Tierney McClellan (aka Barbara Taylor McCafferty & Taylor McCafferty) : Schuyler Ridgway Mystery Series – Schuyler is a realtor in Louisville, Kentucky.

Elaine Orr: Jolie Gentil Mystery Series – Jolie is a real estate appraiser in an east coast beach town called Ocean Alley, in New Jersey.

Maggie Sefton: Kate Doyle Mystery Series – Kate is a divorced realtor in a Colorado college town. (Well, actually there is only one book in this series.)

Nina Wright: Whiskey Mattimoe Mystery Series – Whiskey, a widow, works as a realtor in a resort town in Michigan. Abra is her Afghan Hound.

If you’re interested in finding other themes of Cozy Mystery series, I have lots and lots of themes on the Cozies by Themes page of my Cozy-Mystery site.

By the way, if you know of any other Cozy Mystery Realtor Sleuths, please post a comment. Thank you!

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Isis Crawford: A Mystery with Recipes Mystery Series

April 18, 2016

A Catered Murder (A Mystery With Recipes Book 1) I have been surveying some of the Cozy Mystery series that are most frequently recommended in our monthly recommendations, and next on my list is Isis Crawford’s Mystery with Recipes Series. Isis Crawford is somewhat of a veteran writer of Cozy Mysteries. As Barbara Block, she wrote the Robin Light Mysteries which included ten books published between 1994 and 2007.

The Mystery with Recipes Series began with A Catered Murder, published in 2003 and is now up to book sixteen which will be published in a few months (2016). As the name of the series suggests, these books fit squarely within the culinary cozy mystery theme, mysteries with recipes, that is so popular in the Cozy Mystery genre.

Set in Longely, New York, a town that is about a $200 cab ride from New York’s Kennedy Airport, the mysteries involve two sisters, Bernie and Libby Simmons as the sleuths. A Catered Murder begins with Bernie arriving at the family home/bakery/cafe early in the morning after taking such a cab ride. Bernie arrives with no luggage or cash after having flown from Los Angeles following a discovery that her long-time live in boyfriend has been cheating on her with one of her best friends. Bernie left literally everything behind.

Libby, Bernie’s older sister, has been running the cafe and catering business “A Little Taste of Heaven” while also taking care of their wheelchair-bound father who lives in the family’s quarters above the shop. Bernie arrives on the same day as Libby is catering the local high school’s reunion. So Bernie is immediately put to work helping. Yikes! At the reunion dinner, someone dies and the mystery begins!

Libby wants to help find the murderer both because the death occurred during her catering event, but more importantly, because one of her best friends, Tiffany, is accused of the killing. Bernie and Libby’s father, Sean, is the former chief of police of Longely. Luckily, he still has contacts that can help them try to solve the murder even though he is on the “outs” with the current chief of police.

Bernie has a nearly photographic memory. She is always annoying Libby with her encyclopedic knowledge on trivia related to food (or just about anything!) Libby, who is also suffering from a long-ago failed romance, is more the steady matronly type who took over the business of running the shop after their mother died.

Libby and Bernie are somewhat of a rarity in the Cozy Mystery genre in that they both provide substantial contributions to the sleuthing. In A Catered Murder it would be difficult to say which of the two sisters is the primary sleuth. To me, the relationship of the sisters is one of the most attractive parts of the book. The relationship is nicely drawn as complicated with some sparks and disagreements, but it obviously is still based on deep sisterly affection. (Love that!)

There’s a reason Isis Crawford’s Mystery with Recipe series has been recommended by other Cozy Mystery readers. It’s a series that keeps on delivering, a series that is full of characters who will draw you in and make Longely, NY  and the “A Little Taste of Heaven” shop a comfortable and inviting place to which to return.

As an added bonus (for Cozy Mystery readers like me >>> who love holiday themed Cozy Mystery books, Isis Crawford sets a lot of her Cozies during holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, and even the Fourth of July!) She has written so many holiday themed Cozies that she is on the “Holiday Theme Mystery Authors …” page on my site. This page features Cozy authors who set a lot of their books during the holidays.)

P.S. If want to read some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

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Four New-to-the-Site Cozy Mystery Authors: Julia Buckley: Undercover Dish, Rae Davies: Dusty Deals, Christina Freeburn: Faith Hunter Scrap This, Kelly Lane: Olive Grove

April 16, 2016

Here are four most recent Cozy Mystery authors who I have added to the Cozy-Mystery site. The authors I add to the site come from recommendations of other Cozy Mystery readers.

Julia Buckley – Julia Buckley is a Chicago based writer who has taught high school English for over twenty years. She is the author of the Undercover Dish Mystery Series which stars Lilah Lake, a behind-the-scenes caterer and the Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series with a sleuth (Lena London) who is the apprentice for a famous author while trying her hand at authoring. Buckley also writes the Teddy Thurber Mystery Series, starring an English teacher, the Madeline Mann Mystery Series, starring a reporter. (Recipes are included in the Undercover Dish Cozy Mysteries.)

Rae Davies – A former reporter who now works as a full-time author, Rae Davies (aka Lori Devoti) writes the Dusty Deals Mystery Series. Davies also teaches writing at the university level, through a continuing education program. Her Dusty Deals series stars another former reporter, Lucy Mathews. Lucy left her job as a crime reporter to open an antiques store in Montana. Lucy is frequently accompanied by Kiska, her Alaskan Malamute.

Christina Freeburn – Christina Freeburn had many careers before finally becoming an author of Cozy Mysteries and romance novels >>> she has been a paralegal, a librarian, a church secretary, a stay-at-home mom, and even a JAG legal specialist in the US Army. It’s no surprise that her Cozy Mystery series, the Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery Series, stars a former JAG specialist. The sleuth, Faith Hunter, has returned to West Virginia to run her grandmother’s scrapbooking store and solve mysteries!

Kelly Lane – Kelly Lane has worked as a copywriter, journalist, editor, and public relations professional as well as an author. She lives in Virginia, and is the author of the Olive Grove Mystery Series, which stars Eva Knox, an olive grove farmer in Georgia. (Recipes are included in the Olive Grove Cozy Mysteries.)

I hope you enjoy these Cozy Mystery authors as much as the Cozy Mystery readers who recommended them!

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